Is Now The Time In West Texas To Get Earthquake Insurance?

I never thought, living in Midland/Odessa, I would ever be looking into earthquake insurance for my house. This is stuff that only happens in California or the west coast, not here.

According to CBS 7, after the 5.3 earthquake we had just last week north of Midland, insurance companies are getting more and more inquiries about earthquake insurance for homes.

“You can call your insurance agent. It’s an endorsement that you have to add to your policy at renewal. So, if you have an existing policy, you just can’t call in and say there have been some earthquakes and I need to add earthquake insurance to my policy.” said Mary McCourt, Senior Sales Agent for Lisa Copeland Insurance.

You do have a lot of choices for earthquake insurance and many companies are offering it now for residents of Midland/Odessa.

“We’re not just specializing nationwide any longer. We have Travelers, Safeco, Atlas, Colonial, Nationwide, and Progressive, so we do have more companies and they’re adding earthquake coverage to their underwriting guidelines all the time,” said McCourt.

If there is an earthquake in the future that causes damage and you have earthquake insurance you will have to let your insurance company know so they can send out a specialized adjuster.

“That would be all up to the determination of the adjuster. So, we would have an adjuster who specializes in earthquake damage. They would then be the ones to come out and estimate the damage,” said McCourt.

Damage is not usually a factor until the earthquake gets to a 5.5 magnitude and higher.

Since we just experienced a 5.3 earthquake just last week, now is the time to look into adding earthquake insurance to your policy.